Apple Vision Pro: for me, epic failure

[DiTBho]

so, it's out. Ania said she was tempted to get a return ticket from Estonia to New York, in order to buy one of those new devices made by Apple.

- The Apple Vision Pro looks like a true cyberpunk cyberdeck, something you can use without a physical keyboard and mouse
and that's so interesting .... - she said. And she is not the only one saying that.

and precisely here, is where Ania and I just don't consider it the same way.

Sure New York is beautiful, but why would I spend so much money?
And the time to stand in a loooooong-queue and get up early in the morning to get my seat as close as possible to the Apple Shop doors?

It sounds crazy for me, especially because in order to buy one you need $4,000 and a US bank account.
(you can order online, but you cannot pay with with bank-money transfer if your bank account is not located in the US)

Plus, trouble checking in at the airport, because the box is not "small".
And it's so crazy heavy! It's NOT ergonimic, and this is a serious problem!

Apple knows it, journalists (well, Youtubers ... ) know it, no one has been able to say anything to date, even due to NSA agreements

But! This is a serious problem, because it's not a device which is supposed to be weared for a couple of hours.
It's a VR-Pro device, where "pro" means "professional", as you should use it non-stop for 8-10 hours as a replacement for a desktop computer.
Otherwise it doesn't make any sense, and doesn't justify the high price.
But, actually, facts are that it makes both your neck and eyes annoyed after 45 minutes.

There are a lot of things I don't like.

Look at it. You see nobody in the "industrial design division! is not even following J.Ive's directives:
be minimalistic, if you don't need something (meaning, a mechanism, a cable, ...), it must be invisible. Hide it!.

But, what the bloody hell are those orange wires that you see on the strap that holds the device on your head?
You don't need to see them, why are exposed there? And all the sensors that are in sight? Why?
And why the battery connector is that way? when they developed much better connectors in the past.

And why do you need a second strap on the top of your head?
Because it's not ergonimic, and metal and glass makes it too heavy!

Also, there are no applications, and, worse still, some devs are not willing to develop anything.

So ... for me, what Apple is doing is "testing people with the minimal financial investiment", just to see if there is enough interest 

[ebastler]

It's a VR-Pro device, where "pro" means "professional", as you should use it non-stop for 8-10 hours as a replacement for a desktop computer.

No, in this case "Pro" means "You are so cool, man -- shell out the money, will you?"

no one has been able to say anything to date, even due to NSA agreements

While Apple's NDAs may be tight, I don't think they are quite at NSA-level confidentiality yet. 

[m98]

I don't really get your point? Obviously, they don't have any magic at their disposal, but are right at the edge of what was possible at the time this product was designed. I guess if you have any substantial insights on how to make this more power efficient, smaller and lighter, Apple is always hiring. First-gen products are rarely the best version they could ever become.

[aeberbach]

So you have some arbitrary requirements that the device doesn't meet. It's not for you, move on, go buy one of the many better AR/VR devices that are out there! Oh wait...

[tom66]

For me the whole device seems like an attempt to kickstart the metaverse by Apple.  Meta couldn't do it, and Apple will probably fail too.  Outside of tech circles people aren't interested in this form of VR. 

Before someone accuses me of tech Ludditery, Apple has failed several times in the past.  iPhone was genuinely game changing.  Watch was innovative even in its first generation.  I own both.  I can't really see why I'd ever own a Vision device.

[tooki]

For me the whole device seems like an attempt to kickstart the metaverse by Apple.  Meta couldn't do it, and Apple will probably fail too.  Outside of tech circles people aren't interested in this form of VR. 

Before someone accuses me of tech Ludditery, Apple has failed several times in the past.  iPhone was genuinely game changing.  Watch was innovative even in its first generation.  I own both.  I can't really see why I'd ever own a Vision device.

Indeed. I’d certainly consider myself to be within tech circles, but I also don’t see any reason why I’d want one. The most compelling use case for me so far is being able to simulate a cinema-size screen for watching movies while laying in bed in any orientation. But that’s certainly not worth thousands of dollars to me, especially not while Netflix and YouTube continue to throw a tantrum and refuse to release native apps for it!

[tooki]

So ... for me, what Apple is doing is "testing people with the minimal financial investiment", just to see if there is enough interest 

I suspect the “minimal” investment is far, far larger than you think. It sounds like a ton of work went into developing a new user interface for it, not to mention low-latency, high-frame rate camera technology that is anything but off-the-shelf. (And it’s still not good enough, mind you!)

Anyhow, you’re clearly not their target audience.* So don’t buy one. But I certainly wouldn’t get my panties in a twist about it, as you have.

*I freely admit that I have no idea who the true target audience is, like practically all VR products.

[ebastler]

So you have some arbitrary requirements that the device doesn't meet. It's not for you, move on, go buy one of the many better AR/VR devices that are out there! Oh wait...

I don't see the problem with the original post. It is titled: "... for me, epic failure", so it explicitly states what you also concluded -- the product is not for DiTBho, the OP.

In my view the technology is just not there yet for a convincing product in this category. And maybe in addition Apple went a bit over the top with a very ambitous design and implementation. Reminds me of the Newton PDA in both respects.

We will eventually see more practical and affordable (and maybe simpler) products in this segment. Maybe they will come from Apple, maybe they will come from other companies who take a less ambitious approach, as was the case with PDAs. 

[EEVblog]

I posted this on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/eevblog/status/1754266410719855002

Prediction: Regardless of how cool the tech is, the Apple Vision Pro still won't catch on.
After the novelty wears off, people will go back to their shoe phones. And people will not want to deal with you if you are wearing them due to the same privacy and social concerns Google Glass had. Social stigma will kill this in public.
Ok, so they'll be a big hit at home: Nope. Once you realise it's just better and more convenient to use your existing PC, you'll ditch them.
Want a big virtual screen?, existing products do that already.

[EEVblog]

Indeed. I’d certainly consider myself to be within tech circles, but I also don’t see any reason why I’d want one. The most compelling use case for me so far is being able to simulate a cinema-size screen for watching movies while laying in bed in any orientation.

Don't existing goggles already do this?

[EEVblog]

- The Apple Vision Pro looks like a true cyberpunk cyberdeck, something you can use without a physical keyboard and mouse

And in Casey Neistat's video he's constantly using the QWERTY keyboard 

[Marco]

The Sony XR headset is more what I would imagine professional to be. Function over form, compromises light leak for flip up, because the latter will almost always be more important in a professional setting. Doesn't spend weight allowance on the outward light field display borrowed from Meta.

[SiliconWizard]

I don't think they care about the current state of this product, it's obviously just a big investment. What they want is to introduce a technology that they hope will be there to stay (and be on top of the game of course). Apple has always done that.
And it's not just Apple. They all want to go after this giant new market that is the virtual reality world. A fucking shitpile of virtual life, AI and artifical everything.

Do we realize how those big companies have so much power that they can potentially shape the future of humanity in very profound (and disturbing) ways. No single company should have that much power.
So an "epic failure", if that's really one, is rather good news. But I don't think it's enough of a failure to stop the crap.

[EEVblog]

I don't think they care about the current state of this product, it's obviously just a big investment. What they want is to introduce a technology that they hope will be there to stay (and be on top of the game of course). Apple has always done that.
And it's not just Apple. They all want to go after this giant new market that is the virtual reality world. A fucking shitpile of virtual life, AI and artifical everything.

Do we realize how those big companies have so much power that they can potentially shape the future of humanity in very profound (and disturbing) ways. No single company should have that much power.
So an "epic failure", if that's really one, is rather good news. But I don't think it's enough of a failure to stop the crap.

I actually predict an eventual big social movement towards minimalist/no tech.
I can't put a date on it, but my spidey sense tells me that a lot of people will eventually reject a lot of this modern tech in favour of real life experience. Just like society is starting to reject other modern movements involving wokeness and the like.
VR/AR goggles like this in public might be in the "nope, too far" category for society.

[SiliconWizard]

I don't think they care about the current state of this product, it's obviously just a big investment. What they want is to introduce a technology that they hope will be there to stay (and be on top of the game of course). Apple has always done that.
And it's not just Apple. They all want to go after this giant new market that is the virtual reality world. A fucking shitpile of virtual life, AI and artifical everything.

Do we realize how those big companies have so much power that they can potentially shape the future of humanity in very profound (and disturbing) ways. No single company should have that much power.
So an "epic failure", if that's really one, is rather good news. But I don't think it's enough of a failure to stop the crap.

I actually predict an eventual big social movement towards minimalist/no tech.
I can't put a date on it, but my spidey sense tells me that a lot of people will eventually reject a lot of this modern tech in favour of real life experience. Just like society is starting to reject other modern movements involving wokeness and the like.
VR/AR goggles like this in public might be in the "nope, too far" category for society.

I do not predict it for sure myself, but I do agree that it's rather likely to happen. Interestingly, I think the whole thing has already been "predicted" in numerous sci-fi books. Not that much because the authors were visionaries, but because it's a pretty obvious consequence of a highly artificial society. Heck, someone (that I will not mention or I could have problems ) said that "we must prepare for an angrier world". No kidding joe.

[Jeroen3]

VR/AR goggles like this in public might be in the "nope, too far" category for society.

You underestimate the stupidity of people.

In any case I think apple placed some really high tech gear on the market here, especially the tracking software appears to be really good in the first reviews. Have you seen or tried what it has to complete against?
Obviously they chose their way of doing it, and current ar is a niche (hololens) or a toy (meta quest).
I think this will motivate competitors to try and match or exceed what apple is doing here and vr/ar/spatial computing will go mainstream. This is a good thing.

Lot's of people ranting that they cannot possibly be allowed to sell it with an external battery or with this weight because it's uncomfortable. Yes, I agree it's a tether to current technolgy. And also, go on then, make a better one

[Berni]

This is a 1st generation product and it shows. Rough around the edges, technology hurdles to still overcome and a really high price tag to go along with it.

I personally have a Meta Quest 3 VR headset. It is a fun piece of tech.

Tho after having accumulated a fair number of hours in VR, i also don't see that much of a point to buying a Apple Vision Pro. They are positioning this as basically a tablet replacement or some sort of productivity tool. But you don't want to spend a 8 hour work day with a VR headset strapped to your face, even the comfortable ones are not that comfortable. Just get yourself an extra monitor or two (they are much cheaper too)

You can get the same monitor external extension functionality on a Quest 3 for 500$ if you wanted that. Buy an aftermarket halo style headstrap for 60$ to make it much more comfortable to wear (the original strap design on both the Quest and Apple Vision is not comfortable) that also includes a battery on the back of the headstrap that brings your battery life to over 3 hours, buy a extra swappable battery for 30$ and you got infinite battery life by swapping batteries between the charger dock and headset (Or a similar to apple sized pocket battery brick will run it for 10 hours). So for about 600$ in total you have a headset that is more comfortable, more usable and has more battery life(without having a cable tethered battery in your pocket).

But really the only use i have for it is VR games (that Apple Vision does not even have). Watching 360° videos is useless because you have to turn your head around constantly and they don't have enough resolution to look sharp(they would need to be 16K or something for that). Using it as a giant cinema screen for watching movies is one other useful use case that works very well (image quality is really good).

Another good use case i seen is also architectural design where you can give someone a tour of a soon to be built piece of architecture and make it feel as if they are standing there. There is software specifically for that.

VR can be very fun and sometimes even useful. But this is mostly just a case of companies jumping on the bandwagon. The Metas Metaverse thing is a piece of shit that nobody would actually use for anything more than a random curiosity for 5 minutes.

[magic]

Whatever it is, there will be porn for it and porn about it
Other than that, no idea.

[DiTBho]

While Apple's NDAs may be tight, I don't think they are quite at NSA-level confidentiality yet. 

umm, think about the mechanism between Apple and Youtubers: Apple sends products to Youtubers/Journalists if and only if they respect a contract, which implies, among other things (don't damage the product, don't resell it on eBay/Wallapop/Aliexpress, carefully open the box | don't break it, ...) also NSA-like confidentiality agreement.

I heard it from a couple of Youtubers during a backstage - sorry, I cannot say more than this - it's not my speculation 

[DiTBho]

For me the whole device seems like an attempt to kickstart the metaverse by Apple. 

Yup, this is precisely my point

[ebastler]

umm, think about the mechanism between Apple and Youtubers: Apple sends products to Youtubers/Journalists if and only if they respect a contract, which implies, among other things (don't damage the product, don't resell it on eBay/Wallapop/Aliexpress, carefully open the box | don't break it, ...) also NSA-like confidentiality agreement.

My point was that you may be confusing Non-Disclosure Agreements (which are a common industry practice when providing evaluation units prior to public launch) which the National Security Agency (who are probably not involved).

[DiTBho]

So an "epic failure", if that's really one, is rather good news

So, yesterday was my birthday and I spent part of the afternoon testing the Apple VR bought by Ania in the US.

The crazy experience of trying to blow out the candles on the cake, cutting it and eating a slice, wearing that object that brings you a thousand messages in augmented reality.

Nice, but... too many inputs for a simple brain cause even the simplest motor responses such as coordinating the hand that moves the slice of cake towards your mouth while you approach the table with your legs to pour some wine, something very cinematic clunky, and full of glitches, and worse still, using the augmented reality virtual keyboard to reply to messages made me seem so dyslexic that I almost always responded with a default copy&paste ("thanks").

Real-life-use challenge: somehow passed - guess Ania is still lauthing - but...
ummm, after 2 hours I had severe pain in the back of my neck, shoulders, and dry eyes.

In the end she deposited ~ $4,000 into the account of a friend who lives in the US, as nice trick to get around Apple's purchasing restrictions (She is Estonian) , spent two nights in a cheap hotel, and returned home with the "precious cargo" in her travel bag.

Enthusiast, while I shrug 

[DiTBho]

An interesting thing that Ania discovered this morning:
the battery cable can be disconnected from the battery pack.
It is not glued, there is a small screw to unscrew 

[Marco]

Apple copying Dyson.

[tom66]

An interesting thing that Ania discovered this morning:
the battery cable can be disconnected from the battery pack.
It is not glued, there is a small screw to unscrew 

And it oddly (well perhaps not for Apple) uses a proprietary connector.  If they used USB-C, it'd work with -any- external battery pack, but NOOOO... Apple have to be special snowflakes about it.